So, I went to the dentist for the first time in forever with two badly broken teeth. Little did I know that in spite of having good dental hygiene habits I also have about a million little "decay spots" that need to be filled and that while both of the broken teeth could be saved, they both needed root canals (two in one sitting suuuucks) and crowns. But wait, there's more! Apparently my teeth were too short or my jaw bone went up too high or some shiitake which makes it so they can't put crowns on without risking them coming out or irritating my gums constantly, so I had to have surgery after they did the root canals but before crowns. This surgery involved them cutting open my gums, removing part of jawbone around the two teeth (which are on opposite sides so recovery was horrible), and then sewing my gums back together. What made that even more fun is that the sedative they gave me DIDN'T SEDATE ME, but it DID give me hallucinations during surgery that made me have two panic attacks, forcing them to stop in the middle so I could calm down.

Now I'm waiting to be able to get the crowns put on and all the decay fixed so I have these weird, gritty, ultra white build ups on my teeth so I can't eat anything hard because I might break them.

And how much did/will all of this cost you ask? Roughly $10,000. Yeah. Seriously. And that's after my (former) insurance payed for $1,800 of it.

I went to the dentist today for the first time, new person, and he said that I have nine cavities that need work! I've only ever had one cavity in my entire life, and I have a hard time believing that now I have nine. In addition to this he offered to fix them there, but didn't get pushy when I said I would need to think about it.

Has this happened to anyone else? I know I saw two other people on here that also reported the dentist telling them nine. How do you find a dentist that will be honest?

I went to the dentist today for the first time, new person, and he said that I have nine cavities that need work! I've only ever had one cavity in my entire life, and I have a hard time believing that now I have nine. In addition to this he offered to fix them there, but didn't get pushy when I said I would need to think about it.

Has this happened to anyone else? I know I saw two other people on here that also reported the dentist telling them nine. How do you find a dentist that will be honest?

Any thoughts?

I've heard that this happens to a lot of people. You can look up reviews on yelp, I was surprised at how many people review dentists on there when I looked. I'd get a second opinion. Do you have any dental hygienist friends? My bf had more than ten filled recently with a new dentist and before he did it, he showed a printout of the xrays to our friend, who confirmed that his mouth was indeed forked. Other than that, ask around, find someone other people you know like. Those are my only suggestions, good luck!

AND BEBOPMOUSE, that seriously does sound like dental hell. I'm sorry you are having to go through with that and I hope everything goes/heals smoothly for you.

Thank you so much for responding! I am going to a new dentist on Weds (I've got a slight to killer toothache). Naively, I did not look up reviews before I went to see this dentist that told me I had nine cavities. Well, after you told me about the yelp thing I looked him up, and apparently he tells many people they have eight or nine cavities. So, I think he is full of shiitake. This new dentist has great reviews, and the receptionist was super friendly.

Bebopmouse,

I am so sorry! What are you going to do about the medical bills? Do you, hopefully, have some way of working this out? I'm pulling for you over here!

On one hand, this thread gives me some comfort because I'm not the only person to go years without visiting the dentist (going on 6, due to being a broke asparagus grad student with no insurance living in fricking expensive parts of CA). On the other hand, I just made an appointment and I'm terrified that it's going to be a nightmare... I simply can't afford thousands of dollars of work. I brush and floss a lot, but my last two dentists said I had deep crevices that were going to cause me lots of cavities in the future regardless of dental hygiene. My gum line looks pretty good but I do have tartar in the fissures of my molars, despite incessant brushing. I'm really freaked out.

Ugh. Glad to find this thread. I clean. My teeth well due to bad enamel and lots of cavities that I try to avoid aggravating. Also in the camp of not having money to get my wisdom teeth out. And right now one of my wisdom teeth is really making my gum uncomfortable. I may have some icky bacteria partying under there or something...I'm going to try lots of mouthwash and salt water rinsing. Ugh.

_________________"I think I am going to turn into a chickpea." ~DakiniLove is like a pineapple, sweet and undefinable~ Piet Hein

Dental care really is my least favorite thing. I forkin hate the shiitake out of flossing, and brushing isn't bad but it's so easy to forget. I've become so much worse since being single, too. Also then there's the whole dentist thing. That shiitake is so expensive even with insurance! I'm apparently supposed to get a crown, two (my remaining) wisdom teeth out, and some kind of cut-me-up thing for gingivitis. I was told this about a year ago. I can't stand that a 26 year old, pretty healthy human body needs this kind of care. You could say I probably wouldn't have gingivitis if I was always good at flossing, but that's another thing that peas me off! Why the fork did evolution not evolve teeth better? I'm an animal, I shouldn't have to rub string in between my teeth every day!

I'm an animal, I shouldn't have to rub string in between my teeth every day!

I read an article about this a few months ago, wish I could remember where. It pretty much said that some of it probably has to do with the fact that we eat so much soft food. If you were chewing on raw tree bark or something on a regular basis you might be faring better. Not that that seems appetizing.

_________________Anyone for some German Shepherd Pie? - daisychainWell! Fruit is stupid! These onions taste nothing like fruit! - allularpunkDwarf-tossing for God: A Story of Hope - Invictus

Dental care really is my least favorite thing. I forkin hate the shiitake out of flossing, and brushing isn't bad but it's so easy to forget. I've become so much worse since being single, too. Also then there's the whole dentist thing. That shiitake is so expensive even with insurance! I'm apparently supposed to get a crown, two (my remaining) wisdom teeth out, and some kind of cut-me-up thing for gingivitis. I was told this about a year ago. I can't stand that a 26 year old, pretty healthy human body needs this kind of care. You could say I probably wouldn't have gingivitis if I was always good at flossing, but that's another thing that peas me off! Why the fork did evolution not evolve teeth better? I'm an animal, I shouldn't have to rub string in between my teeth every day!

I'd say it's because we were too impatient. We invented floss before evolution had a chance to catch up. Probably if we could have just held out another thousand years or so, we'd all have gums of steel.

_________________Man, fork the gender card, imma come at you with the whole damned gender deck. - Olives Did you ever think that, like, YOU are a sexy costume FOR a diva cup? - solipsistnationblog!FB!

My teeth suck. We didn't have fluoride in our water when I was a kid and my parents didn't promote good dental hygiene so I've had cavities all my life. I've been better since a horrible abscess a couple of years ago but now I need to use prescription 5000ppm toothpaste to slow down decay. I also have a phobia of dental treatment and have to be sedated for work which is expensive as the only dentist who sedates in my city is private and costs around £150 per filling.

Hi appifannie! If it's any consolation, my teeth are multi-filled too. Once I finished getting all my molars filled in my teens I started with gum line fillings and some of those need to be replaced every 5-10 years. Root canals, caps, a bridge, chipped front teeth, night bite guard (the most recent of which I broke in 6 months) - I've got 'em all. I have excellent dental insurance here and I very grateful.

I finally have a really good dentist (and his office staff) I like and trust now, after 15 years of three different ones I didn't like or trust. I hope he sticks around.